Regular School Board Meeting

Jeff PlatenbergstaffThere being a quorum of board members present this evening, I call the meeting of the City of Fairfax School Board for Fiscal Year 2025-2026 to order. Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

Speaker 2I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Jeff PlatenbergstaffSection 22.1-72 of the Code of Virginia specifies that at its annual organizational meeting in July, a school board shall elect one of its members as chair and one as vice chair and shall approve other appointments and designations of responsibility necessary for board operations during the year. So tonight, in my role as Chief Executive Officer of this school system, I have the distinct pleasure and responsibility of presiding over the first part of this annual organizational meeting. You will see on your agenda the actions the Board must take to approve organizational arrangements and make appointments for the coming year or the first order of business for this meeting. At this time, I will open the floor to nominations for chair of the City of Fairfax School Board.

Speaker 6I nominate Carolyn Pitches as chair of the City of Fairfax School Board.

Jeff PlatenbergstaffCarolyn Pitches has been nominated by Lauren Bartome. Bartome, are there any other nominations? Hearing no other nominations, the motion before the board is that Carolyn Pitches be elected chair of the City of Fairfax School Board. School Board of Fairfax, Virginia. All those in favor of the motion, signify by raising your hand and saying aye.

Speaker 6Aye.

Jeff PlatenbergstaffThose opposed? The motion carries by unanimous vote, with all members present and voting except Ms. Pitches. I am pleased at the, well, who is present? I am pleased at this point to turn this meeting over to Ms. Pitches, who will manage the remainder of our evening. Chair Pitches.

Carolyn PitchesOkay, our next item is a call for nominations for Vice Chair of the City of Fairfax School Board. May I have a nomination please?

Amit HickmanI nominate Christina Sessori as Vice Chair of the City of Fairfax School Board.

Carolyn PitchesAre there any other nominations? Hearing no other nominations, the motion before the Board is that Christina Sessori be elected Vice Chair to the City of Fairfax School Board. all those in favor motion by raising your hand and saying aye

Amit Hickmanaye aye

Carolyn Pitchesthe motion carries unanimously we will move on to announcement of changes in our agenda which there are none this evening and we do not have any other announcements so we will adopt the agenda may have a motion please madam chair

Speaker 6I move that the city of Fairfax school board approved the agenda as written and distributed.

Carolyn PitchesMay I have a second?

Amit HickmanSecond.

Carolyn PitchesOkay, so Ms. Cesare has moved and Ms. Hickman has seconded. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye, none opposed. So the adoption of the agenda passes unanimously. Okay, we are on. Our next item on the agenda is the annual school board organization. Ms. Hickman, could you please read the agenda item into record?

Amit HickmanI move that the school board authorizes organizational arrangements and appointments as follows. One, designate the first Monday of each month as its regular meeting dates for October, November, and December of 2025. January, February, March, April, May, and June of 2026. The regular meeting for September 2025 will be held on the second Monday. The board will not meet in August. Work sessions will be held on the third Monday of each month for the 2025-2026 school year, with the exception of January and February 2026. For the months of January and February 2026, the work session will be held on the fourth Monday. There is no work session in December and June. There is a joint City of Fairfax Mayor and City Council session in September 2025 and

March 2026. There's a joint FCPS School Board session in December 2025. A special meeting is scheduled for August 4th, 2025. If during the year the regular meeting date or work session date falls on a holiday or other conflicts arise, the respective meeting or work session will have to be rescheduled. In those instances, it shall be the responsibility of the division superintendent to inform the school board. Two, set the salary of board members at $4,600 per annum and that of the chairwoman at $5,600 per annum. Three, appoint Barbara King, clerk of the City of Fairfax School Board. Four, retain Stacey Haney to provide general legal services. 5. Establish a rotation schedule for the superintendent and school board members to either attend physically or virtually the Fairfax County School Board regular monthly meetings.

This schedule will start with the superintendent and follow with school board members in alphabetical order. The FCPS agenda will be sent to the entire board prior to the scheduled meeting date. Appoint Carolyn Pitches as liaison to the Fairfax County School Board. 6. Appoint Amit Hickman and alternate Carolyn Pitches to serve on the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board. 7. Appoint Sarah Kelsey as representative to the City of Fairfax Environmental Sustainability Committee. 8. Appoint Christina Sessory as the City School Board Delegate to the VSBA Convention and Amit Hickman as the alternate delegate. 9. Appoint Christina Sessori and Carolyn Pitches as the City of Fairfax School Board Legislative

Liaisons. 10. Appoint Carolyn Pitches and Sarah Kelsey as representatives to the Washington Area Boards of Education. 11. Continue the search for a City of Fairfax Schools representative to the FCPS Health Advisory Committee. 12. Appoint Ms. Kate Herman as City of Fairfax Schools representative to the FCPS Facilities Planning Advisory Council. 13, continue the search for a City of Fairfax Schools representative to the FCPS Advanced Academic Placement Advisory Committee.

Speaker 214,

Amit Hickmanappoint Ms. Juliana Nelson as the City of Fairfax Schools representative to the FCPS Minority Student Achieve Oversight Committee member. 15, appoint Dr. Sally Driver as the City to the FCPS Career and Technical Education Advisory Committee. 16, appoint Mary Kay Cizunas as the City of Fairfax Rep to the Advisory Committee for Students with Disabilities. 17, appoint Dan Phillips as Acting Superintendent, effective August 1st, 2025. 18, authorize the Chairman and the Clerk to sign all legal documents for the Board, other than those requiring the signature and authorize the vice chairman to sign in the absence of the chair. 19, authorize the interim superintendent for the city of Fairfax schools to execute official documents

relating to state, federal, and local aid, as well as procurement and other documents that by policy or practice, the school board has authorized the superintendent or interim superintendent to execute.

Carolyn PitchesThank you, Ms. Hickman. Do I have a second? Second. Okay, who was that?

Speaker 2Ms. Kelsey second.

Carolyn PitchesThank you, Ms. Kelsey. Okay, Ms. Hickman read into record the annual school board organization and Ms. Kelsey seconded. All in favor of the school board organizational items read into record signify by saying aye.

Speaker 6Aye.

Carolyn PitchesMembers opposed? No members are opposed so the recording is unanimous. Okay, moving on to to the school board we don't have anybody signed up for citizen participation and we don't have any public hearings this evening so we'll move on to our first action item first action item is the approval of the june 3rd 2025 meeting minutes as uh printed and distributed um the clerk has provided these minutes is there a motion madam

Sarah Kelseychair

Carolyn Pitchesuh miss kelsey i

Sarah Kelseymove that the city of fair school board approve the minutes of the June 3rd, 2025 school board regular meeting as printed and distributed.

Carolyn PitchesMay I have a second?

Speaker 6I second.

Carolyn PitchesMs. Kelsey has moved and Ms. Bartle may has seconded the city the minutes of the June 3rd, 2025 regular school board meeting. Are there any changes or modifications or additions? Okay. Being none, all those in favor signify by saying

Speaker 6aye aye

Carolyn Pitchesno members are opposed to the motion is unanimous um the next item on our agenda is the approval of employee contracts for our assistant superintendent mr dan phillips communications director carolyn dorsey and facilities director tom woods for fiscal year 2026 may have a motion please madam

Speaker 6chair

Carolyn Pitchesmiss sessori i

Speaker 6move that the city of fairfax school board approved the employment contracts as printed and distributed for Dan Phillips, Assistant Superintendent, Carolyn Dorsey, Communications Director, and the services contract for Tom Wood, Facilities Director, for fiscal year 2026.

Carolyn PitchesMay I have a second?

Amit HickmanSecond.

Carolyn PitchesOkay. Ms. Sessori moved and Ms. Hickman seconded that the school board approved the out, oh, whoopsie-daisy, the wrong thing is written on here sorry um that miss uh necessary is moved miss hickman has seconded the approval of the employee contracts for mr dan phillips assistant superintendent communications director carolyn dorsey and our facilities director tom woods for fiscal year 2026 are there any changes or modifications sorry that's my dog okay being done all those in favor signify by saying aye aye no members are opposed the motion passes unanimously okay we will move on to superintendent's matters mr plattenberg

Jeff PlatenbergstaffI don't have any matters at this time thank you

Carolyn Pitchesokay board members I will start with miss Bartlemay I

Speaker 6don't have anything either.

Sarah KelseyOkay. Ms. Kelsey. I just want to wish everybody a safe and fun summer. And I also would like to wish Mr. Plattenberg the best in his retirement in a month. And that's all.

Carolyn PitchesOkay. Ms. I'm trying to think of who's next in line. Ms. Hickman.

Amit HickmanI also since our last public meeting wanted to thank Jeff and wish him well on his retirement. Hope he gets some relaxation time in. A little sunshine or whatever that might be. And just to congratulate everyone on a positive end of the school year and wish everyone a happy summer and save 4th of July.

Carolyn PitchesOkay. Ms. Sessori.

Speaker 6I'll reiterate what Ms. Hickman said, but I also want to take a moment and thank my fellow board members for their vote of confidence in nominating me for vice chair. I'm honored to step into this role and just want to let you know that I'll work hard to represent our school district with integrity and purpose. I wrote a little something and just want to – I'm reminded of a quote that I recently read from the late Representative Jerry Connolly who said that when you get power, you have an obligation it responsibly but exercise it otherwise why do it and though I've only been on the board for six months I've spent over a decade engaged in our community both as a teacher a school leader PTA volunteer now on the board with all y'all and I do take each obligation very seriously and as we

look ahead to the coming school year I'm committed to continuing the work we've been doing keeping the school bond on track and on budgets and making sure our schools have the resources they need to create exceptional learning opportunities. And finally, I just want to wish everyone a wonderful summer. If you haven't checked out our Facebook page, information was recently shared on how to access summer meals if your student is in need. And most importantly, don't hesitate to reach out to the board. Thank you so much.

Carolyn PitchesThank you, Ms. Cessary. I would just like to thank Jeff for his service to this board our city our schools um and you know thank thank you jeff for your work on the bond and also the rfp i know that was quite um an undertaking um we wish you the best of luck and we we do hope that we see you again um you're always more than welcome if you you know to to come to a board meeting. I'm sure you'll be missing

Speaker 6them.

Carolyn PitchesAnd I'd also like to just wish everybody a safe and happy healthy summer. Are there any other matters before the board? Okay being none I will adjourn the meeting at 6 47.